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How to Hide Files Inside JPEG/GIF/PNG Images?

We discussed various methods for hiding files inside your computer. Methods include super secure Truecrypt which offers military level security and handy MyLockbox to lock any folder. But all these methods require installation of software on your PC which is obviously visible to others.

We are now going to talk about a unique method of hiding files that’s kinda sneaky and doesn’t require a third-party tool. This technique involves hiding files inside JPEG, GIF or PNG images. Sounds cool, right? Lets see how it is done.

1. Create a folder in C drive. Give it a name, lets say Testfile. It’s location should be C:\Testfile.

2. Now move all the files you want to hide inside this folder. Also move the image file in which you want to hide those files. Let’s say the files which I want to hide are FileA.txt and FileB.txt, and the image file is Image.jpg. We are taking .txt files as an example. You can take files of any format (.mp3, .doc, .divx, .flv etc.) and any number of files.

3. Select both the files you want to hide (FileA.txt and FileB.txt in this case), right click and select “Add to Archive”. Make sure that you’ve got a file compression tool like WinZip or ZipGenius, a cool free winzip alternative, installed.

4. Give it a name. I have given Compressed.rar. You can give it any name.

10. When you look up at Testfile folder, you will find a new image file called SecretImage.png. This image file is created in previous step with the help of command. Secretimage is just a name given to the new image. You could give any name and extension (like xyz.jpg or xyz.png).

Both the files FileA.txt and FileB.txt are hidden inside this image file. You can delete rest of the files now.

How to get our Files back from the image?

That’s easy too. Just right click on the image (SecretImage.png) and open it with Winrar/Winzip/ZipGenius. You will see both the hidden files. Extract them anywhere on your computer.

Update: From comments I came to know that few users are facing problem while opening image file in Winrar application. They can change the file extension of secret image file in which all the other files are hidden from .jpg to .RAR. (In the above case SecretImage.png to Secretimage.RAR) and then open it with the help of Winrar.

That’s about hiding confidential files in Images. A foolproof method to hide important files. Did you like this technique? Let us know in comments.